


The Longest Friday

by snowzone5



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mileven, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-11 10:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19926856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowzone5/pseuds/snowzone5
Summary: Mike is having a bad Friday. He wakes up in a bad mood. He gets Lucas mad at him. He gets Dustin mad at him. And when he finally manages to talk to El, the girl he's had a crush on all year, he ends up insulting her. Worst Friday ever. Mike has no idea how bad his Friday is going to get.





	1. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 1

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday, He just had to get through today and enjoy the weekend. How long could the day possibly last?

"Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

"It would keep waking me up."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

They heard a loud thump from Holly's room and then Holly starting to wail. Nancy left quickly to see what happened.

Mike trudged downstairs to the kitchen. Holly had stopped crying by the time Mike sat down. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. Your dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes," his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Ted was reading the morning paper, oblivious to his family.

Mike had really wanted scrambled eggs like he usually got on Friday mornings. He didn't know how to make them, and relied on his mother's cooking skills.

Nancy came downstairs with Holly, looked at Mike and said, "she pulled down her doll shelf and they were all over the place. Crisis averted."

"Can you make me some scrambled eggs, Nancy?"

"Make them yourself Mike."

"Thanks Nance, I'll make sure to return the favour when you need it the most. I just hope you'll be desperate when you ask me. Karma is a bitch." Mike went to the freezer to get the Eggos. There were only two left in the box.

"Language." Mike looked at his dad, who still had his face buried in the paper. The almighty Ted speaks. Who knew he could talk?

Mike ate his Eggos. He didn't use syrup, he preferred it on scrambled eggs.

Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He liked to use the basement bathroom for that. The upstairs bathroom was always busy in the mornings. Mike was sure he spent most of his time in the basement. He practically lived in it. He found he had to open a tube of toothpaste from a new box.

Lucas was coming up the driveway when Mike stepped out outside. "Hey Mike," Lucas said. He was adjusting a strap on a new backpack he'd gotten for Christmas. It came loose in his hands.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores?"

"Tell your mom that," Mike smirked at him.

"I can probably fix it. Just the stitching gave way. It didn't snap like I thought."

"Did you learn how to stitch in Home Ec. class?"

"Are you going to be like this all day? Screw you Mike." Lucas didn't talk to him for the rest of the morning.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike could see that El Hopper was farther behind them. Great she gets to watch them all being humiliated.

Mike had a major crush on El. Her locker was right next to his, but it might as well have been an empty void in the wall, because she didn't know he existed. Maybe she would notice him after seeing the sight of fresh blood on his face. He'd take a punch for that. Just to be noticed by her. He'd take two punches for that.

"What would Friday be without a fresh bruise?" Dustin said, trying to be funny, but it was delivered with a big sigh.

The three of them waited for Troy.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

"I'll take frogface over whatever dogshit for a face you use." Mike was not feeling especially careful today. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. And a pounding it would be…

"What did you say frogface,"

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I think I compared your face to dogshit."

Troy looked back like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Then he punched Mike in the jaw and ran off with James.

"Damn," Dustin said, "that was ballsy and stupid at the same time."

As they walked towards the front doors of the school, Lucas tripped on an untied shoelaces, he fell face first into the grass, inches from there the sidewalk pavement started.

"Whoa, you guys could have had matching jaws," Dustin said, "chick magnets for sure."

"Hey Dustin, how about you take the next punch from Troy," Mike said.

"Don't be a little asshole. When you decide not to be, we'll do lunch." Dustin walked off.

Mike was at his locker when El came up to hers. She always wore a wristband her left wrist. It was a pink one today. But he saw that she had quickly changed it to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi."

Mike was in a foul mood. "Oh it's 'hi' today is it? Today is the day you decide I exist in your world? Well, hello to you Princess El, how is your day going? Mine is really shitty right now, but thanks for asking." El looked hurt and Mike immediately regretted what he said. Too late to take it back now. El didn't look at him again. She closed her locker and walked off.

Shit.

Mike had to sit beside El twice in a regular school day. Once in home room, and once in Mr. Clarke's Earth class.

She was already sitting there when he sat down beside her. She ignored him. "Sorry for being such a wasteoid, having a bad day before it even starts."

El continued to ignore him,. "Ok, so nothing new today, I'm back to not existing in your world. Well, I tried to apologize. Sorry I wasted your time. Won't happen again." Mike couldn't help his self-destructive comments. Mike didn't even bother to see if El looked hurt at all. It was clear she didn't like him, and even clearer that the 'hi' she had said at the locker , were the first and last words she would ever say to him.

Mike managed to avoid answering any questions in Math class, but he heard all the answers. He was paying attention, but trying to avoid any interaction with the teacher. He was also avoiding Max Mayfield's glare. He knew she was El's best friend, and didn't like him either. And going by the glare she was giving him, she was super pissed.

When class was over Max marched over to him, "any particular reason you're being a mouthbreather to my best friend, Wheeler?"

Mike immediately got his back up, "who told you my name? It couldn't have been your best friend, she doesn't even know I exist. Doesn't matter anyway, I tried to apologize, but I'm back to not-existing in her world. For the brief time I did, it was such pure bliss, I almost couldn't stand it." Mike tried to sound as sarcastic as possible.

Max just looked at him without saying anything. She spun on her heel and walked off.

Well, let's get this next class over with. Mike thought. Ordinarily he looked forward to all of Mr. Clarke's classes, but with El as his lab partner, it was too painful to be sitting next to her, only talking about the lab work. Not being able to just _talk_ to her. What he wouldn't give to be able to talk to El Hopper. About the weather. Or about grass growing. The history of socks, anything, just to talk to her.

He knew any chance he had of that, ended that morning. Mike took in a deep breath and sighed. Perfect Friday so far. Let's see what the rest of the day brings shall we? Mike's internal sarcasm was going to leak out today, even more than it had already, he could just feel it.

El was once again seated at their desk before he got there. He wordlessly opened up the shared lab book and then remembered it was her turn to write. "Sorry, it's your turn, I'll write if you don't want to."

El looked at him, shook her head, "no, I'll do it, we don't want to lose marks." She took out her pencil and started writing the date and lab title. She put too much pressure on the pencil and the tip broke.

"Um, El. I'm having a bad day." El's pencil tip broke again. Mike gave her his pencil, "I didn't mean to take it out on anybody." He looked down, "especially you… my best friends Lucas and Dustin are already pissed at me, even _your_ best friend, who I don't even know, is pissed at me. My day hasn't even started yet. That's a new record for me. Best Friday ever. " Mike rubbed his jaw looking glum. "So… I'm sorry."

"Mike," she said, "why did you let Troy punch you?"

"Let?" Mike snorted. "None of us _let_ Troy do anything. He just does it and we can't stop it. One of us was going to be punched today. My day was going bad enough it might as well have been me, I thought, screw it, couldn't get any worse."

He looked up at El. Her eyes were big and round, probing his own. Mike thought he would pass out with how pretty she was. He was sure he teetered on his seat a bit. He swallowed, "and then my day did get worse at your locker. Really sorry..."

"Mike," he felt like she was looking much deeper into his eyes than he thought was possible, "I understand."

Mike was first in the lunchroom sitting at the Party table. Dustin and Lucas showed up a few minutes later. Neither one of them spoke to him.

"Um, sorry guys."

Dustin and Lucas shrugged at the same time. "It happens, Mike. Wouldn't be the first time for you this year. I don't know why you just don't talk to her?"

"To who?"

Dustin and Lucas looked at each other. "Uh, the girl you've been pining over since the school year started." Dustin said, "just a guess off the top of my head."

"I insulted her today, does that count?" Mike said.

"Probably not the best approach, did that make the lab go smoother? Did you at least apologize?" Dustin said.

"Yeah I did. She seemed to be ok with it."

"Well," Dustin looked like he was lost in thought, " _this_ should cheer you up," he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

"How did you get those" Mike asked.

"Saved up all summer, ordered from an ad in the back of Dragon Magazine."

Dustin opened the bag up. Started rolling the various combinations of dice, calling out the numbers as he rolled, "11, 47, 56, 65"

Somebody dropped a plate at the far end of the cafeteria and it shattered into a million pieces. Everyone in the room laughed.

The end of the school day finally came around, and Mike went to his locker. El was already there. He had caught her changing her wrist band back to pink. He saw that tattoo on her wrist. Ah, that's why she wears it. Mike thought.

He saw Troy coming towards him out of the out of the corner of his eye, he leaned a bit closer to El and said, "I'll try not to bleed on you."

She looked at him curious, but followed his eyes to Troy. Troy was being a jackass, and in a bizarre dance of un-coordination, slipped or tripped into an open locker door. His head collided hard with it, breaking his nose, and Mike as sure he saw a tooth flying out of his mouth.

Mike saw El's nose was bleeding, and handed her a handkerchief out of his locker. "Looks like I won't be needing this today." He nodded towards Troy, "that could have been my nose, but it would have been bruised and bleeding a lot more."

El looked a little sad, but she thanked him, and left. Mike went out to the bike rack, but none of the Party were waiting for him. Giving him space, he guessed.

El was there. Waiting to be picked up by her dad. Everyone knew that Chief Hopper was El's adoptive father. That kept her off limits to everyone. Mike couldn't help it though. His crush wasn't going away anytime soon. He wouldn't even call it a crush, it was way beyond that.

"What time is it?" El asked him.

"3:30...is your dad late?"

El looked at him and nodded.

At 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view. Mike waited with El but they didn't talk much.

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Don't get used to it."

Great, he's met her dad and Hopper already doesn't like him. This felt like the longest Friday Mike had ever lived through.

Mike's Friday was just getting started.


	2. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 2

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Saturday. Finally. Wait. Why was Nancy getting him up on Saturday?

"No school on Saturday, Nancy. Why are you getting me up?"

"You're such a smart kid Mike, too bad your sense of time sucks. It's Friday. Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age? Or a calendar?"

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

They heard a loud thump from Holly's room and then Holly starting to wail. Nancy left quickly to see what happened. Did Holly pull down the shelf again?

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. Holly had stopped crying by the time Mike sat down. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes. " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Ted was reading the morning paper... Mike noticed it was Friday's paper. Was yesterday really Thursday? Could he have been having _that_ bad of a day he'd just been wishing it was Friday.

His dad wasn't likely to read the same paper without complaining the entire time.

Mike had really wanted scrambled eggs like he usually got on Friday mornings. He didn't know how to make them, and relied on his mother's cooking skills.

Nancy came downstairs with Holly, looked at Mike and said, "She pulled down her doll shelf and they were all over the place. Crisis averted."

Two days in a row? Well, she was just a kid. It wasn't like Mike hadn't done the same dumb thing two days in a row.

"Can you make me some scrambled eggs, Nancy?"

"Make them yourself Mike."

Mike hadn't really expected any other answer. Ah, wait... maybe Nancy would after all if she knew there were no Eggos left.

"I ate the last two Eggos yesterday morning." Mike went over to the fridge, and opened up the freezer to show Nancy that there was no box of Eggos waiting.

Except there was.

Mike reached in and opened up the box. Two left. Ok, that was really weird. Mike _knew_ he ate the last two yesterday morning.

Mike ate his Eggos. He didn't use syrup, he still preferred it on scrambled eggs.

Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He liked to use the basement bathroom for that. The upstairs bathroom was always busy in the mornings. Mike was sure he spent more time in the basement. He practically lived in it. Mike had to open a tube of toothpaste from a new box.

Mike stopped cold. Ok, he knew he was having a bad day yesterday and may not have been paying total attention to what was going on, but he distinctly remembered opening up a new box of toothpaste.

Yesterday was starting to feel like a bad dream. Well Troy's punch wasn't a dream, he felt his jaw. It didn't feel sore. Mike shrugged, maybe his face was recovering better from Troy's punches.

Lucas was coming up the driveway when Mike stepped out outside. "Hey Mike," Lucas said. He was adjusting the same strap on the new backpack he'd gotten for Christmas. The one that he had a problem with yesterday. It came loose in his hands.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores?"

"Same one as yesterday? I thought you were going to fix it, you know from the stitching you learned in Home Ec, class."

"What are you talking about Mike?"

Mike sighed, "it's the same strap you had a problem with yesterday."

"Seriously Mike, you need to get more sleep, I wasn't using this one yesterday,"

"The strap didn't snap, Lucas, the stitching just gave way."

Lucas just looked at him and then looked at the strap. "Oh, you're right."

"How would I know that Lucas, if it didn't happen yesterday?"

"Just a good guess that's all."

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike could see that El Hopper was farther behind them again. Great she gets to watch them all being humiliated. Again.

Mike's chest tightened when he saw her. Mike had to hold himself steady with one hand on the bike rack. He could not believe how pretty she was. Her locker was right next to his, yesterday day she had actually talked to him. Mike gave a big sigh. Maybe she would again today, after seeing the sight of fresh blood on his face. He'd take a punch for that. Just to to talk her again. He'd take two punches for that.

"What would Friday be without a fresh bruise?" Dustin said, trying to be funny, but it was delivered with a big sigh.

The three of them waited for Troy.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

Mike tried a new line, "hello shit for brains."

"What did you say frogface?"

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I think I compared your brains to shit... although dogshit would have been more accurate."

Troy looked back like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Then he punched Mike in the jaw and ran off with James.

"Damn," Dustin said, "that was ballsy and stupid at the same time."

As they walked towards the front doors of the school, Lucas tripped on an untied shoelaces, he fell face first into the grass, inches from there the sidewalk pavement started.

"Whoa, you guys could have had matching jaws," Dustin said, "chick magnets for sure."

"Hey Dustin, feel free to take the next punch from Troy," Mike said.

"Sorry Mike, he usually just insults me, I don't get punched like you do." Dustin looked down.

"I'm just having another bad day, two days in a row he punched me."

Dustin looked confused. "When did he punch you yesterday, I thought he was absent all day?"

"He definitely punched me."

Mike was at his locker when El came up to hers. She always wore a wristband her left wrist. It was a pink one today. But he saw that she had quickly changed it to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi". Mike could have sworn she cringed a bit waiting for his reply.

"Hi, El... I want to apologize again for yesterday... I had a really bad day."

El looked a little confused, but smiled at him, "it's ok Mike, I hope today is better."

"It already is," Mike smiled better at her, blushing a little, El did the same.

Did he just have an actual conversation with El Hopper? Mike believed he did. This day was not going to be a total write off after all.

Mike had to sit beside El twice in a regular school day. Once in home room, and once in Mr. Clarke's Earth class.

Mike could see that she was looking toward the door. It looked like she was waiting for someone. When she saw him, her beautiful eyes got wide and she smiled his way.

Mike almost fainted right then and there. He felt light-headed, not sure of his footing as he walked to their desk.

He sat down beside her. He had no idea why she was talking to him today, halfway through the school year, but he wasn't going to complain.

Mike didn't answer any questions in Math class, but he heard all the answers. He payed attention, enough to know that the exact same questions were being asked today. Ok that was weird. He also noticed that Max Mayfield's was looking at him with a smile . He knew she was El's best friend, and probably didn't like him either so he couldn't figure out why she was smiling at him. He hoped she didn't like him. _That_ way. Max wasn't his type, but it would make it awkward if she was always around El. Mike snorted to himself. Did he just hope a girl didn't like him? How screwed up did your Friday have to be for that to happen?

Well, let's get this class over with. Mike thought. He was looked forward to Mr. Clarke's Earth class, with El as his lab partner. It was painful to be sitting next to her, only talking about the lab work. Not being able to just _talk_ to her. What he wouldn't give to be able to talk to El Hopper. About the weather. Or about grass growing. The history of socks, anything, just to talk to her. He thought that almost everyday.

El was once again seated at their desk before he got there. He wordlessly opened up the shared lab book and then remembered it was her turn to write. "It's um your turn."

El looked at him, nodded, She took out her pencil and started writing the date and lab title. She put too much pressure on the pencil and the tip broke.

"Today is light years better than yesterday was ." El's pencil tip broke again. Mike gave her his pencil.

"You're pencil broke twice yesterday, too, you should probably get new one, you'll end up sharpening that one down to nothing before the next week is out."

El looked at him. She had an odd expression on her face.

"Mike," she said, "why did you let Troy punch you?"

"There's no _let_ involved. None of us _let_ Troy do anything. He just does it and we can't stop it. One of us was going to be punched today. My day was actually looking up before he punched me. Today not the worst day I've had, a little weird but not the worst day."

He looked up at El. Her eyes were big and round, probing his own. Mike thought he would pass out with how pretty she was. He was sure he teetered on his seat a bit. He swallowed.

"Whew," Mike said. He really thought she was going to pass out. He took a couple of deep breaths.

"Mike," he felt like she was looking much deeper into his eyes than he thought was possible, She put her hand on his arm. "You ok? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Oh, it was definitely _something_. Mike just couldn't tell her. Not today.

Mike was first in the lunchroom sitting at the Party table. Dustin and Lucas showed up a few minutes later. Neither one of them spoke to him.

"Um, sorry about this morning guys."

Dustin and Lucas shrugged at the same time. "It happens, Mike. Wouldn't be the first time for you this year." Dustin said "You seemed to be friendly with El Hopper, _that's_ the first time for you this year. What happened?"

"I don't know," Mike said.

"Well," Dustin looked like he was lost in thought, " _this_ should cheer you up," he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

"You showed me those yesterday, Dustin."

"Impossible. I just got them last night after school. Look, the bag is sealed."

Dustin was right. The dice bag was unopened. Ok this day was starting to get a little weirder as it went on.

"Dragon Magazine, right?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I saved up all summer."

Dustin opened the bag up. Started rolling the various combinations of dice, calling out the numbers as he rolled, "11, 47, 56, 65"

Somebody dropped a plate at the far end of the cafeteria and it shattered into a million pieces. Everyone in the room laughed.

This had happened yesterday

Mike wondered what the hell was going on.

The end of the school day finally came around, and Mike went to his locker. El was already there. He had caught her changing her wrist band back to pink. He saw that tattoo on her wrist.

"The wrist bands cover it up?" Mike looked at her.

"You weren't supposed to see it. Nobody is."

"Because they ask too many questions?" El nodded.

"Ok, El. I won't mention it again. Promise." She looked at him with those eyes.

Mike had to look away. Those eyes...

He saw Troy coming towards him out of the out of the corner of his eye, he leaned a bit closer to El and said, "I'll try not to bleed on you." He'd told her that yesterday too.

She looked at him curious, but followed his eyes to Troy. And nodded in realization. Troy was being a jackass, and in a bizarre dance of un-coordination, slipped or tripped into an open locker door. His head collided hard with it, breaking his nose, and Mike as sure he saw a tooth flying out of his mouth.

"Geez, if Troy keeps up being that clumsy he's not going to have any teeth left in his head."

Mike saw El's nose was bleeding, and handed her a handkerchief out of his locker. "Looks like I won't be needing this again. You had a nose bleed yesterday too, are you ok, you're not sick or something are you."

"Yesterday?"

"Which I thought was Friday, but turned out my day was bad enough that it was only Thursday... except for the weird stuff that's happened to me today."

El thanked him, closed her locker and said, "see you... tomorrow."

Mike thought tomorrow was Saturday, she'd probably lost track like he apparently had yesterday. He went out to the bike rack, but he knew they Party would not be meeting him there.

El was there. Waiting to be picked up by her dad. Chief Hopper was El's adoptive father. That kept her off limits to everyone. Mike couldn't help it though. His crush wasn't going away anytime soon. He wouldn't even call it a crush, he knew it was way beyond that. It looked like he was going to get to talk to her yet again. This was a new record for him.

"What time is it?" El asked him.

"3:30... is your dad late?"

El looked at him and nodded. "Give him fifteen minutes, if he doesn't show I'll walk you home... or to the police station."

At 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view. Mike waited with El but they didn't talk much. She gave him an odd look when he told her the time.

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Don't get used to it."

"Only two days Sir, not enough times to get used to it."

Hopper gave him look, then rolled up the window, and sped off.

Finally, Mike thought. Friday is finally over.

It was not.


	3. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 3

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Saturday. "Seriously Nancy, it's Saturday, why are you getting me up."

"You're such a smart kid Mike, too bad your sense of time sucks. It's Friday. Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age? Or a calendar?"

"Yesterday day was Friday, Nancy, we had this same conversation yesterday morning."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

They heard a loud thump from Holly's room and then Holly starting to wail. Nancy left quickly to see what happened. Ok there was no way, his mom hadn't moved that shelf out of Holly's room if she'd pulled it down two days in a row.

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. Holly had stopped crying by the time Mike sat down. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes, " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Nancy came downstairs with Holly, looked at Mike and said, "She pulled down her doll shelf and they were all over the place. Crisis averted."

Mike felt numb. He wasn't going to ask Nancy to make scrambled eggs for him. He went to the fridge and opened up the freezer to see the box of Eggos he knew was waiting for him. He looked in the box. Two left.

"Shit."

"Language." Mike looked at his dad, who had his face buried in the paper. Friday's paper.

After he ate the last two Eggos. Again. Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He preferred to use the basement bathroom for that. The upstairs bathroom was always busy in the mornings. Mike was sure he spent more time in the basement. He practically lived in it.

He saw that he once again had to open a new box, the same box really, of toothpaste.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Was he going to have to relive Friday... again?

It had gotten old the first time he did it.

Lucas was coming up the driveway when Mike stepped out outside. "Hey Mike," Lucas said.

"Don't adjust the strap-" Mike said loudly.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores? Um, Mike why did you warn me about the strap two seconds earlier?"

"Maybe tomorrow," Mike said.

"Tomorrow is Saturday," Lucas said. "No school."

Mike laughed, "Yeah that's what I thought yesterday."

"Well, actually yesterday was Thursday, and last time I checked, Friday followed Thursday, and after Friday, it's Saturday. I think I learned that in grade one."

Mike shook his head, "check out the strap, the stitching gave way."

Lucas looked puzzled but inspected the strap, "you're right. How did you know? Did you have a backpack like this?"

"My mom wouldn't buy a piece of shit like that in a store." Mike said.

"Are you going to be like this all day? Screw you Mike." Lucas didn't talk to him for the rest of the morning.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike looked and saw El behind them again, but not quite as far behind as she had been 'yesterday'.

Mike's heart soared when he saw her. He was giddy, knowing that if things were kept the same he would get to actually talk to her again. Mike didn't think it was possible, but on a second look at her, he found that she was indeed prettier than she was yesterday.

"You're going to have to stop staring at her," Dustin said. and then "What would Friday be without a fresh bruise?" He was trying to be funny, but it was delivered with a big sigh.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

"Which one of you was first in Asshole class, I'm guessing it was you," Mike looked at Troy.

"What did you say frogface?"

"Shit, I'm sorry, did I stutter? Again. This is the third time I've had to repeat myself to you. Clean the shit out of your ears."

Troy looked back like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Just watch what you say Wheeler. Next time I'll punch you." He left with James.

Mike's jaw almost dropped, "he didn't punch me. That's different."

"Far be it for me to point it out, Mike, but you sound disappointed he didn't punch you. Damn, that was ballsy and stupid at the same time."

"Tie your runners, Lucas." Mike said.

"What?" Lucas looked down at his untied shoelace, "thanks, man, I could have tripped on that."

They walked towards the front doors of the school.

Mike was at his locker when El came up to hers. She always wore a wristband her left wrist. It was a pink one today. But he saw that she had quickly changed it to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi". Mike noticed she didn't cringe after she said it.

He knew he had to apologize for what he said, it was two days ago for Mike, but if he was repeating this day... Mike couldn't believe he was considering that a possibility.. if he _was_ repeating Friday, then his insult was only yesterday day for her.

Wait, she wasn't repeating Friday's _he_ was. Her yesterday had been a regular Thursday.

"Um, I'm not used to you talking to me... any girl for that matter. I'm going to have a weird day today, so if I say something... um, not nice...I don't mean it ok?"

"Ok, Mike," She looked at his eyes. She was killing him with her eyes.

Screw it, he was going to say it, she'd wouldn't remember anyway if he had to do Friday over again tomorrow. And if she did, well, then she would know how he felt. Worse that would happen was that she told him off, and leave. I guess, she could slap him, that could be a worse case scenario.

"Um, El?

"Yes Mike?"

"You have really pretty eyes." There he'd said it. His face was burning, no way she wouldn't see it. He felt woozy. He'd just told El Hopper she was pretty. He meant it with every fibre of his being.

She blushed, and looked down. "Thank you, Mike."

She looked up at him. "You too." She smiled, closed her locker and went to their home room

What? He wasn't expecting that. He felt unsteady on his feet. He was going to have to sit down or fall down. He finished up at his locker and quickly followed her to their desk. Neither one of them looked at each other. Neither one of them saw a the little smile they had when they thought of what had been said at their lockers.

Mike kept putting his hands up to answer all the questions in Math class. He was glad he'd payed attention.

"Does anybody other than Michael want to answer any of these questions, thank you Mike. You'll find the test really easy."

He noticed that Max Mayfield's was looking at him with a smile, she must have talked to El.

He was already looking forward to Mr. Clarke's Earth class, with El. It would be a little embarrassing at first after the confessions earlier this morning. Mike was ok with that. Telling El that she was pretty had been way high up on his list of things he wanted to do. And more achievable than being taught Jedi mind tricks.

El was seated at their desk again before he got there. He wordlessly opened up the shared lab book and then remembered it was her turn to write.

"It's my turn," she said.

Mike looked at her, nodded, She took out her pencil and started writing the date and lab title. She put too much pressure on the pencil and the tip broke. Mike got a new pencil ready.

"Here," he said at the exact second her pencil tip broke again.

El looked at him. She had the same odd expression on her face.

"Mike," she said, "why didn't Troy punch you today?"

"I don't know, I thought my insult this particular Friday would do it. I'm not complaining, the day is still young, I could still get my wish." He smirked.

"I haven't figured out all the rules yet. Any of them really."

"What rules?" El asked genuinely curious.

"I can't explain it El. I'm having a really weird Friday. I don't want you thinking I'm a weirdo and not talk to me again. It can wait. Maybe things will be back to normal after school."

"I don't think you're a weirdo, Mike. I know your a nerd though." El looked down smiling.

Mike was first in the lunchroom sitting at the Party table. Dustin and Lucas showed up a few minutes later.

"Can you guys think of any reason why Troy didn't punch me."

"You're still sounding disappointed. Well, _this_ should cheer you up," he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

"You save up all summer for those," Mike asked already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," Dustin said as he opened the bag.

"Lucas," Mike said.

"Yeah, Mike?" Lucas looked at him.

"11." Mike whispered, and looked at the dice Dustin was about to roll. They came up 11.

Lucas shrugged, "lucky guess." Dustin was oblivious, about to roll a new combination of dice.

Mike whispered again, "47."

Dustin's red translucent dice came up 47.

"Still a lucky guess? How about... um 56." Mike raised his eyebrows at Lucas.

Next roll Dustin was happy with was: 56.

Lucas' eyes got a bit wider, "Can you do it again?"

"65" Mike said. He didn't even bother looking at the next roll.

Dustin rolled one more time, "65, yup they work ok. I made good investment. I'm using these next campaign."

"What's going on Mike." Lucas whispered he'd lowered his head towards Mike.

"How did you do that?"

Dustin saw they were whispering and moved closer to get in on the conspiracy.

"We're best friends right?" Both Dustin and Lucas nodded.

"And what's the one rule we follow as friends."

"Friends Don't Lie." They both said at the exact same time.

"We know you wouldn't lie to us, Mike. " Lucas nodded towards the dice that Dustin was putting back their bag. "Especially not about something like this."

"I'm repeating Friday."

"This Friday?" Dustin said.

"Wait for everyone to laugh," Mike said.

"Why would every-" Someone dropped a plate that must have shattered into a thousand pieces and everyone in the lunchroom laughed.

"This Friday." Mike said.

"That's the third time I've heard that plate explode."

"So you know exactly what's going to happen?" Dustin said.

"I don't know all the rules yet. All three of my 'Fridays', " Mike air quoted, "started the same way."

"I used a different insult on Troy each day., I knew he was going to punch me anyway, my first Friday, I was having a bad day, you guys didn't talk to me all morning, sorry about that... you guys don't remember obviously."

"What were the other ones you used?" Dustin said. Mike told him, Lucas laughed "man, I wish I'd been there for those."

"You were," Mike said, "if I have to repeat all this tomorrow it's going to be a major pain in the ass."

The end of the school day finally came around, and Mike went to his locker. El was already there. He had caught her changing her wrist band back to pink. She caught him looking at her wrist band. He had just missed seeing the tattoo it covered.

"I'll um, wait with you until your dad picks you up." El smiled at him and nodded.

He saw Troy coming towards him out of the corner of his eye, he leaned a bit closer to El and said, "I'll try not to bleed on you."

She looked at him and followed his eyes to Troy. Troy was being a jackass, and in a bizarre dance of un-coordination, slipped or tripped into an open locker door. His head collided hard, _really_ , hard with it, breaking his nose. More like mashing it on his face and Mike knew for a fact he saw more than one tooth flying out of his mouth.

"Ow, that _had_ to hurt. I almost feel sorry for, uh, wait no I don't. I don't know what I did to deserve that Karma, but I'm going to try to keep doing it.

Mike was still looking over at Troy who'd started blubbering, and automatically handed her a handkerchief out of his locker without saying a word.

"Thank you," El said. "Is your day back to normal yet?"

"Not really El"

"Sorry."

"Not your fault El. I must be atoning for something, but I have no idea what it is."

"What bugs me is that today I got to talk to you, if my… next... Friday goes the way today did, I have to break the ice all over again. I already know it's going to wear me down. If there was something I could say to you, or I had the nerve to like this morning, that would get us to the point where we are now…"

"You mean…" El said, blinking her eyes at him.

Mike flushed. "That was forward of me. I meant it, but you could just as easily have slapped me."

"I would never hurt you, Mike." El's voice had such a sincere inflection in it, that he was taken aback.

"You can say I'm pretty anytime you like, " El blushed, "but if you want to _talk_ to me. _Really_ talk to me. Call me Eleven. "

"Oh, the tattoo,I didn't now that was your name."

El's eyes got wide, "you know about the tattoo?" Mike nodded.

"I promised you I wouldn't bring it up. Shit, I just broke my promise." El saw that Mike looked like he'd just killed a puppy.

"I'm really sorry, El. You won't remember this... shit. I don't break promises. I really don't"

"Mike," El looked at him with those eyes, he couldn't look away "I understand... you are having a weird day."

"You have no idea, El."

They walked outside to the bike rack, Mike looked at his watch.

"You have to wait about half an hour," Mike told her.

El nodded, "he's late."

At 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view. El smiled at him, "Remember... Eleven,"

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler-"

Mike cut him off, "yeah, don't get used to it. I get it."

Mike smiled to himself, he'd waited with her for three days in a row now. As long as he kept repeating Friday, Hopper was going to be late. Joke was on Hopper.

Hopper gave him a look, then rolled up the window, and sped off.

"Hey, let's do Friday again." He said to himself.


	4. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 4

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

Mike poked his head around the door and said loudly. "I'M UP!"

"Shit, Mike." Nancy was startled not expecting it.

"Are you wondering why I don't get an alarm like every other normal kid?"

"Yeah, I was... why don't you?"

"And miss this morning exchange with my lovely sister?"

"What's got into you Mike?" Nancy tried to sound pissed off, but she could see Mike was in such a good mood she didn't want to spoil it.

"Nancy, can you check on Holly real quick, to see if she's too close to her shelf again."

Nancy quickly left and ran down the hall.

Mike waited for the thump and the crying from his little sister. It didn't happen. It looked like Mike was able to change that at least. He hated to hear his little sister cry. If he could prevent it he would, anytime, make that _every time_.

Nancy came back to his room, "crisis averted. Thanks Mike."

"Can you do me a favour after school, before you go out tonight. I want you to teach me how to make scrambled eggs."

"Why don't you get Mom to show you."

Mike had already anticipated this, "I want to make breakfast in bed for Mom on Mother's Day."

"Ok, who are you and what have you done with my kid brother. Yes, Mike I'll show you but it has to be right after school ok?"

"Thanks Nance, I owe you."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible to understand.

When Mike got down to the kitchen, he immediately went to the fridge to get the Eggos. He didn't think he had to, but he took a quick look at the paper his dad was reading. Still Friday.

Mike, smiled. Some things were still the same.

Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He opened the tube of toothpaste from the new box.

He managed to get outside and get to Lucas before he reached for his strap. He shouted "STOP!"

It startled Lucas enough that he stopped in his tracks. "What is it Mike"

"The stitching is about to give way on your backpack strap."

"I was just about to adjust it, thanks for the reminder."

And then it gave way.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores?"

"I tried to stop you. I'll explain at lunch."

"There's no way you could have known Mike. Don't worry about it."

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike looked and saw El again.

He couldn't wait to talk to her again. He couldn't quite tell, but it looked like she was smiling at him. On second thought, this would be her first Friday talking to him, so Mike knew that wouldn't be it.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

"Hello you Son of a Motherless Goathumper," then Mike shouted.

"Everybody be witness to this mouthbreather about to assault me." And then quieter to Troy, "go ahead punch, me, I'm sure nobody will tell a teacher or a teacher isn't already watching."

And then an even quieter more menacing tone, Mike said "why don't take a few minutes and count your teeth this morning asshole. I'll ask you for a recount at the end of the day."

Mike was sure the Troy didn't know what had just happened. Troy stomped off.

Dustin and Lucas jaws were stuck open.

Dustin was first to speak, "maybe you'll be lucky and he'll kill you quickly. Best you can hope for today. Sorry Mike, you were a great friend."

"Lucas, tie your shoes." Mike said.

Lucas looked down, shrugged in surprise and got down one one knee to tie his shoes.

Mike could not wait to get to his locker.

El was there already. That was new, the last three days he'd been there first.

Mike saw that she had already changed her wristband to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi".

Mike caught her attention. She looked and was about to look away, but did a double take and looked back at him.

"Mike?" He only had the nerve to say this once. He took a deep breath.

"Eleven, you have the prettiest eyes I'm ever going to see in my entire life."

Her beautiful eyes went wide, her bottom lip quivered a little. She cleared her throat.

"You have something important to say," She said simply.

Mike hesitated "I do El, but I'm sure you wouldn't believe me. I'm not sure I believe it."

"Don't tell me if you're not ready. We all have secrets we are afraid to share."

"That was very philosophical. Are you saying you have a secret too?"

"I can't tell you," El said with a half smile, "it's a secret. A girl needs her secrets." She turned and walked off to their home room, throwing him a smile over her shoulder.

Mike was sure his secret outdid hers. She was probably just being coy.

Math class was the same. No change there.

Mike got to Mr. Clarke's class, before she did. She gave him a smile that made him feel like he was floating. "Has anybody told you that you are really pretty?" Mike was feeling bold today.

"Some cute guy did this morning, but that's it." Mike and El shared crimson faces.

"I really wish I didn't have to do all this again tomorrow."

"Tomorrow is Saturday, Mike."

Mike looked at her. Should he tell her? He had no proof, it's not like she would be rolling dice today, their lab encounters had been different every single time. Except for her pencil, but that wasn't enough to convince anybody. "You're right, what was I thinking?"

The lab went smoothly as usual, Mike and El worked very efficiently together. Had Dustin or Lucas been his partner, they would have gotten good marks for sure, but they would have been goofing around half the time.

"Mike," she said, "why didn't Troy punch you today?"

"He should have, it's a few days in a row now that he hasn't. I can't figure it out."

Mike waited for Dustin and Lucas in the lunchroom. As soon as they sat down Mike handed each of them a folded piece of paper. "Don't look at them yet."

Dustin, raised his eyebrows, "is this related to the new campaign you're working on."

"Hmm, could be," Mike said not wanting to give anything away.

Well, _this_ definitely is," he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

Dustin opened up the bag, and starting rolling the dice. 11, 47, 56, 65. Dustin called them out as expected.

"Ok, look at the paper now." Both Dustin and Lucas read at the top of the paper. Mike had printed at the top "Friends Don't Lie' , and then the numbers Dustin had just rolled.

"Ok, logically, there was no way you could have known I had my new dice with me. So there's no way you could have guessed those numbers or _any_ numbers. What's going on Mike, are you psychic and have been holding out on us?"

Mike waited a second or two, held up his hand while looking at them, snapped his fingers and said, "queue the plate drop." The sound of a thousand shards filled the air. The sound of laughter filled the room right after.

"I'm repeating this day, it's the first Feb 1st for you guys, 4th one for me."

"Holy shit, Mike. Ok we have questions," Dustin looked at Lucas who nodded, "lots of questions."

"And I have no answers."

Mike had to admit that today went well, he got to talk to El again, she… thought he was cute. That had been a pleasant surprise. Did she like him? Mike forgot to breath just thinking about it.

El was already at her locker after last class. Mike went to get the handkerchief he knew she'd be needing.

"How was your day MIke?" El asked.

"Today was one of the best days I've had," he smiled at her.

"You are the reason for that… shit." He saw Troy coming towards him out of the corner of his eye, he leaned a bit closer to El and said, "I'll try not to bleed on you."

She looked at him and followed his eyes to Troy. Troy was being a jackass, and in a bizarre dance of un-coordination, slipped or tripped into an open locker door. His head collided hard. Mike could see he really hammered the locker door with his face, breaking his nose. He saw more than two or three teeth flying out of his mouth.

"That looked like the worst one yet." He walked over to Troy, and leaned down as he rolled around on the floor in pain. "Tooth recount Troy."

He went back to his locker, "that was kind of mean," El said looking at him, disappointment in her voice.

"He punches me almost every day, he insults Dustin and Lucas. Every day. Who knows how many other people are he terrorizes on a daily basis. I don't know when he finds the time to eat and sleep he's so busy being a bully." Mike looked down.

"Sorry, El." He handed her his handkerchief.

"I didn't know it was that bad," her face darkened as she looked back at Troy, "only three teeth."

"What was that, El?"

"It looks like he only lost three teeth."

"I don't think his nose will ever be the same again either. That's ok, I'm sure he'll take it out on me next time. Fridays have always been this much fun."

Mike followed El out to the bike rack to wait for Hopper. Mike was surprised to see Max waiting for them.

El turned to him, "Mike I want you to be meet my best friend Max."

"Zoomer, right?" Mike smiled at her.

"I like him already, El." Max said. "Um, I know I don't know you all that well, just from what El has told me," Mike looked at El, she returned his look with a smile.

"Could you introduce me to your friend Lucas?"

"Uh, fair warning, but you know we're all nerds right?"

"The whole school knows it, Wheeler… but we know," Max was gesturing between herself and El, "that you guys are also the nicest guys in the entire school. Offsets the whole nerd thing for us."

"I _think_ that was a compliment." Mike said, and then more serious, "wish you had caught me with this in the morning, not sure I can help tomorrow."

"Why not?" Max said her smile disappearing.

"Kind of a long story, I don't know if it will be tomorrow, or Monday, but I _will_ introduce you Max. I promise." Max seemed happy with that. She said bye to them before getting on her skateboard and taking off.

"El?"

"Yes, Mike?"

"What do you think the chances of your dad letting you hang out with us after school?"

"Not today Mike," Mike nodded, looked down, so never then, from the way his Fridays had been going..

At 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view.

El could see how disappointed he was, "maybe tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow's Saturday, El. I have no reason to believe that it's going to work out for me."

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Don't get used to it."

Mike _was_ getting used to it. That was the problem. And El would not remember any of this tomorrow.


	5. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 5

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday. Again. He didn't feel like going to school today. He felt depressed, the only thing he had to forward to today… the _only_ thing, would be talking to El. Even then he didn't feel like he'd be very good company.

He couldn't bear to hear Holly crying, so he quickly ran past Nancy to get to his younger sister before she pulled the shelf down. When he got to her room, he could see she was trying to reach a doll that was on the top shelf. She could barely reach it and that must be why she was pulling it down.

Mike made his way to the kitchen, then to the fridge. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes," his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket. Mike nodded.

"Mom, you might want to move Holly's favorite doll to a lower shelf, she's going to knock the whole shelf over on her one of these days. I already moved it this morning"

"Thank you, Michael."

He looked over at Friday's paper, he should memorize it and try and have a conversation with his dad. No. He couldn't imagine a day where he wanted to do that.

Nancy had taught him how to make scrambled eggs on yesterday's Friday, but he really didn't feel like cooking _or_ eating them today. He didn't feel like eating at all. He didn't feel like doing anything at all.

Not quite true, he felt like talking to El. He felt like holding her hand. He felt like kissing her. Let's put that at the top of the list of things that will never happen today. Maybe forever.

Gah, what if he spent the rest of his life in Friday? Mike was even more depressed than when he'd woken up.

Mike was a logical person, he knew there were advantages and disadvantages to his situation. On the plus side, he would never run out of Eggos, or toothpaste. Not big plusses for sure. You take what you can get. He could amaze his friends with his dice rolling guesses. He still got to talk to El, and learn things about her, even if in only short conversations. She would never learn about him though. He knew he _could_ learn new things and retain them on his next Friday reset. Making scrambled eggs was definitely a plus.

He went down to the basement to brush his teeth. Brand new toothpaste.

He was outside a little earlier than usual, but waited for Lucas instead of leaving for school.

When he saw Lucas, he didn't bother warning him about the strap. It hadn't worked the previous four days, no reason to believe today would be any different.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike could see El was farther behind them.

Nope, definitely not a crush. He _liked_ her. More than like. _Like_ like.

"What would Friday be without a fresh bruise?" Dustin said, trying to be funny, but it was delivered with a big sigh.

The three of them waited for Troy.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

"Hey guys," Mike looked at Dustin and Lucas, "I'd like to you to meet my good friend Troy, he-"

Troy walloped him in the jaw. Mike went down face first in the snow. The cold snow felt good against his face. He didn't remember falling so he thought he'd been knocked out. He was disoriented.

"Shit, Mike, you ok?" Dustin said. He and Lucas helped him stand up.

"You shouldn't have provoked him." Lucas said.

"When have we _ever_ had to do anything to provoke Troy." Mike said, sounding defeated.

"Uh, Lucas tie your shoelace, you don't want a matching jaw if you trip."

Lucas looked down and re-tied his runner, Mike had just been punched hard almost knocked out, and he was still looking out for his friends. Lucas just shook his head. Mike didn't deserve this.

Mike was at his locker when El came up to hers. She was wearing the pink wristband on her left wrist. He saw her changing it to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi."

Mike nodded. He didn't think he could talk to her. He desperately wanted to tell her how pretty she was. He wasn't going to be able to look her in the eyes, they were too much of a powerful force of nature for him today.

El was distracted by the large bruise she saw on his jaw. Her hand reached out and gently touched his face.

"Oh, Mike."

"Having a bad Friday," Mike was barely keeping it together, his voice shaky. El did something totally unexpected, she pull him into a tight hug.

El hugged him for a long time. Mike refrained from crying on her shoulder but he sure felt like it. There were some whistles in the hallway. Mike was beyond caring.

When they parted Mike felt… good.

"Better?" El said and smiled at him.

He still couldn't look her in the eyes, instead looked down and nodded. "You've never said a word to me all year."

"It goes both ways, Mike. You've never said a word to me either."

"It's not like I didn't want to. I'm too shy. I know that about myself. None of the Party, uh, my friends and I, we, um, call ourselves that. None of us would talk to a girl. Getting punched by Troy, that's a given, getting laughed at all the time for being nerds, also a given. Talking to a girl...," Mike took in a deep breath, shrugged, shook his head and gave El a big sigh.

"It's not worth the fear of rejection. Ask any nerd, they'll tell you the same thing."

They went to home room together. El could see that, while her hug seemed to have helped a bit. Mike was still looking… _off_.

Math class had a slight variation. Max came up to him after class, she seemed a lot shyer than Mike thought she would be. She asked if he could introduce her to Lucas.

"Sure Max, um, just meet us at the table we usually sit at, Ok?"

"Thanks… I'll bring El." Max smiled at him knowingly and left the room.

Mike made his way to Mr. Clarke's class. Of course he would get to talk to El again. He just didn't feel like having any kind of conversation.

"I hear Max invited us to the Party's table for lunch… I hope that's ok?" El looked at Mike waiting for an answer.

"Yeah, I promised Max I'd introduce her to Lucas, just didn't think it would be today. Ordinarily I'd say weird coincidence, but not today."

"You promised her? When did you do that?"

"Yesterday," Mike laughed, "my yesterday, not yours."

Mike could see that El was trying not to look confused. "Does confusing conversation come with being a nerd?" She gave him a warm smile.

"You bet it does, if you two are going to hang out with us, you'll need to get used to it."

Talking with El, had perked up his mood. "You are really great to talk to El, you're right, I should have done this sooner… and, um… thanks for the hug. That meant a lot."

"Hugs are free, Mike. Ask for one anytime. How does your jaw feel, that bruise looks bad."

"It'll be gone tomorrow," Mike said.

"A bruise that bad isn't going to be gone in a day, Mike."

"I'll show you a magic trick at lunch, then _you_ tell _me_ "

El was looking confused now. Mike had said strange things all morning. He was going through something. They finished the lab earlier than usual and were let out of the class by Mr. Clarke.

Mike was the first in the lunchroom. A few minutes later Max and El came over and sat with him.

"Why so glum, Wheeler," Max said, "you now have the two prettiest girls in the school sitting with you at lunch."

"I know, but I have to pass one of you pretty girls off to Lucas, the other pretty girl I get to keep."

Mike looked at El, "am I right… I'm talking about you 'girl with the really pretty eyes'?"

Max laughed, turned red, rolled her eyes. She nudged El. El had already turned red and was looking down. "Yes, you get to keep me."

Mike got quiet and looked down also, "at least for today." El saw that Mike still felt really bad today, despite trying to sound upbeat.

Mike didn't need to be hit over the head, he had no experience with girls but he was sure that El liked him. And it looked like it hadn't just started today, he could build on that. His only real problem was that he would to have to build on that every single day. Every single today that was turning out to be a Friday.

Mike leaned forward to the two of them. "Two rules. Lucas will get around to telling you, but in case it comes up before then. Friends Don't Lie. And they don't break promises."

Both El and Max nodded. "Thanks for the secret Party information, Wheeler."

Mike looked at her. "I'm serious. If you like Lucas, you will not go wrong with those two rules."

He didn't say anything directly to El, but he could see her nodding at him. A beautiful smile on her face.

Dustin and Lucas finally showed up. "This is new, Mike is sitting with two girls." He looked at Lucas, "when did we enter the alternate universe?"

Mike snorted. "Today Dustin, you and Lucas entered it today… almost a week for me."

"Lucas, this is Max Mayfield, El Hopper's best friend. Max, meet my best friend and nerd, Lucas Sinclair. That's Dustin Henderson, also my best friend and nerd, he'll be providing the dice rolling entertainment."

"Uh, Mike, how did you know I brought my new dice?"

El was looking at Mike.

"I think you mentioned it weeks ago, you saved up and bought them out of the back of a Dragon Magazine ad? I think you said they'd probably get delivered yesterday, I only assumed you'd bring them in and show them to us first chance you got."

Dustin said, "well, I know you're not psychic, so I must have told you. I don't remember."

He pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice really did look cool. Mike was a little envious.

Dustin started his rolling, and Mike stopped himself from calling out the first result, avoiding El's gaze, but after that he looked at her intently, and mouthed the numbers to her:

"47," El's eyes took a quick glance to the dice on the table.

"56," El's eyes took another quick glance, and then returned to Mike's, her eyes wide.

"65," El looked almost shocked. She looked down at Mike's nose, which he thought was weird, he didn't get nose bleeds… unless punched by Troy, that is.

Lucas and Max were completely ignoring Dustin, Mike and El.

Mike cupped his ear, as if listening for something. The plate shattered followed by laughter, Mike smiled at El. Her beautiful eyes were glowing with curiosity at him.

Mike nodded in satisfaction. This would do for proof if he needed to do it every day.

"El, can we talk after school," She nodded her head vigorously , "after the locker."

El was already at her locker before him, he could see her looking around until she spotted him, and then she very deliberately and slowly changed her wrist band from blue to pink. Mike guessed that she _had_ to know he'd see her tattoo, with the slow change she performed.

She looked at him, with knowing eyes. "I'm going to guess that you know about this."

"Friends Don't Lie, Eleven. I only know you have it, and that it's your name."

"You called me, Eleven. That's what I wanted to hear." El felt giddy with relief. She could talk to Mike. About _anything_. Well, almost anything.

He saw Troy coming towards him out of the out of the corner of his eye, he leaned a bit closer to El and said, "Here comes Troy, if he punches me again, he'll end up breaking my jaw… I'll try not to bleed on you." El's face darkened.

Troy was being his typical asshole self. , and in a bizarre dance of un-coordination, slipped or tripped into an open locker door. His head bounced off the locker door, and because of his footing he collided with it again. His nose was broken by the first collision and Mike could distinctly see two teeth flying out of his mouth. The second one looked like it might have cracked his cheekbone. and they were followed by three more teeth.. He was clumsy today.

He wasn't even looking at El when he passed her the handkerchief. "Let's go outside," she said. Kids were scrambling around trying to help Troy. She grabbed Mike's hand and pulled him towards the door.

Once they were outside El felt like she had more privacy. She took a quick around. "Let's walk."

"Uh, you're dad will be here at 3:45, El."

"Not today he won't."

'Um, yeah he will El."

She looked around, "ok we can talk here , nobody will hear us."

Mike looked around. They were alone. "What's on your mind, El."

"Why doesn't your nose bleed?"

"It does when Troy punches me hard enough." When he thought of what just happened to Troy, he winced, "shit he really outdid himself today. Can't say I feel sorry he broke his face." Mike rubbed his jaw.

"Sorry you had to see that. I mean, why didn't it bleed when you… predicted those numbers? And when you knew about this, " El tapped her wrist, "you're psychic aren't you?"

"Is your nose supposed to bleed, if you do psychic stuff?"

"Mine does." El said.

"You're psychic?!" Mike asked his own eyes going wide.

"One of my words of the day was: telekinetic."

"If you had said that on any day but this Friday I would have called bull."

They could see Hopper's truck making its way towards them.

"It's 3:45," Mike said checking his watch. "Like I said... "

Mike could see that El was really confused, and frustrated. "New day for you tomorrow, don't worry, I know to call you Eleven if I really need to talk to you."

El looked at him wide eyed but he could see she was still confused and frustrated.

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Don't get used to it."

"Too late." Mike said. "I already am."

Hopper gave him a look, then rolled up the window, and sped off.

Mike was back to being depressed. Today felt like he'd really made progress letting his friends know. And El. He had to start all over again tomorrow morning. Wait! Did El say telekinetic!?


	6. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 11

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday. His 11th Friday, he snorted at himself with the irony.

"Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

"It would keep waking me up." Mike actually wished he could wake up earlier. Get an earlier start on this particular day.

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

Mike ran quickly to Holly's room.

"Shit." Mike said, he'd almost forgotten about Holly.

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes. " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Mike looked. Friday's paper. Check. Oblivious Ted. Check. He had made the checks part of his daily Friday routine.

Mike nodded, and made his way to the fridge. Really, how many Eggos was he going to have to eat? He needed to start practicing making scrambled eggs.

Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He liked to use the basement bathroom for that. The upstairs bathroom was always busy in the mornings. Mike was sure he spent most of his time in the basement. He practically lived in it. He opened a tube of toothpaste from a new box.

Lucas was coming up the driveway when Mike stepped out outside. "Hey Mike," Lucas said. He was adjusting a strap on a new backpack he'd gotten for Christmas. It came loose in his hands.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores?"

"Don't you try a dress rehearsal for your gear the night before? My Mom always made Nancy and I do that. Just me now that Nancy is older."

"Who expects a backpack to fail the first day." Lucas said.

"Yeah, first day it failed." Mike smiled.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike could see that El was a little behind them. Another day to see El Hopper, prettiest girl in Hawkins Middle. Today would never be the worse day of his life, regardless of how many times he had to repeat it.

The three of them waited for Troy.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

"Wow, Troy, that's really clever. Did you add that to your limited vocabulary just last night?"

How about a punch? Mike thought.

"What did you say frogface,"

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I asked about your new dictionary."

Troy looked back like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Then he punched Mike in the jaw and ran off with James.

"Damn," Dustin said, "that was ballsy and stupid at the same time."

"Shoelace, Lucas" Mike managed to say from the ground a little groggy from the punch. Lucas looked down a little guilty, and re-tied his runner.

Mike went to his locker. El was already at hers. Ok that was the second time she'd been there first. Her wristband was pink, so she hadn't changed it yet . She looked at him dully and said, "hi." Mike thought she looked incredibly sad.

"Not having a good day, El?"

"Not really Mike…" her voice sounded shaky like she was barely holding back the tears. She looked at the bruise forming on Mike's jaw.

If she was going to cry, Mike thought, she would do it on his shoulder.

"Someone did this for me once when I had a bad day." Mike pulled her into a tight hug, and as expected it released the floodgates.

El starting bawling. Mike hugged her tighter. El cried harder and hugged him back just as tightly. He hard a couple of locker doors rattle.

In a few minutes El had slowed down to sniffling, but Mike held her through that also. The inevitable whistles and shouts of "get a room" filled the hallway. And once again, Mike was beyond caring.

"I have an idea... Eleven." She looked at him with those eyes full of hope, and nodded.

Mike grabbed her hand, and pulled he towards the school entrance.

"Mike? We can't miss school."

"Sure we can, believe me, tomorrow nobody will ever know."

Mike held her hand all the way to the train tracks. She never let go, and at some point their fingers interlaced.

Mike didn't have it in him to do the 'predicting' as El had called it. He'd tried coming up with new ways of doing the prediction, but he didn't need to. Both Dustin and Lucas had believed him right away, and then starting firing questions at him, questions he had no answer to.

He gave her a lot of sidelong glances, asking her about things she liked and didn't like.

Turned out she really liked Eggos. She had told him her favourite book was a dictionary. Mike told her that was nerdier than the Party would ever be. She had laughed, it had the sound of gently tinkling glass. She liked 70's music, she said she got that from her dad.

El got quiet after she's said that.

"Is that why you're having a bad day, El. Something to do with your dad?"

"We had an argument. It's the same one we've had before. We disagree on something important. He's smart, knows more than I do… and he's probably right." El managed a big sigh, "but it's important enough to me that I think he's wrong. The argument got out of hand."

Mike felt cold stopped and turned towards her, he put his other hand on their already intertwined fingers , "he didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, No, Mike," she could hear the worry in his voice and see it in his eyes, it made her weak in the knees to look at his eyes that way. She wanted to reassure him, "he would _never_ hurt me. The argument was... loud… that's all."

She told him about the pink wrist band. She said her dad gave her a blue one and told her why he wore it. She wore it all the time after that. One day he said that El was his second chance and she didn't need to wear it, he didn't need to be reminded anymore so he gave her pink one instead. She wore the pink one to school, but every morning she always changed to the blue one.

"Mike," El said. That intense look in her eyes again. "What's this about?" She pulled up their inter-weaved hands. "This is... the first day you've talked to me all year. And now this?" She looked at their hands.

"It's about holding hands with the prettiest girl in the school." Mike began.

"It's about _wanting_ to hold hands with the prettiest girl I'm ever going to see."

Mike took in a really a really big breath, here goes nothing he thought. "Eleven, I'm going to tell you something that nobody else knows."

El smiled. "You called me Eleven twice today, this is important to you."

"It's a secret right now, and it will be again tomorrow."

El looked confused, "I don't understand Mike."

"I seem to be reliving this Friday. At lunch today I would have been calling out the numbers on the dice rolls Dustin would be making. This morning I told Lucas about his shoelace so he wouldn't trip after Troy finished with us."

"You told me this was the first day I've talked to you, and now we are holding hands. This is is your first day talking to me, but it's my 11th," Mike laughed, "so I guess today is the perfect day for me to be telling you all this. Did you wonder how I knew to call you Eleven, if I _really_ wanted to talk to you? You told me on the third day. And I know about…"

Mike stopped himself. "I promised I wouldn't bring it up. I don't break promises." He looked down. El looked at him and could see that he was not going to tell her. But she could guess.

She tapped her wristband wide eyed hoping she didn't have to give away her secret or that he would have to break his promise, and he nodded.

"What do you know?"

"Just that it's a tattoo… your name… and a secret . I'm guessing that's why you cover it up, and gave it to me as sort of a code word."

El nodded. She didn't have to go into details. Mike knew it was a secret.

"Have you been able to change anything that's already happened?"

"A few things, I've been able to stop my little sister Holly from a shelf falling and scaring her so bad it makes her cry. I won't miss that for as long as I have to live this Friday over and over again." El squeezed his hand.

"I can't seem to get to Lucas fast enough before his backpack strap gives way. Troy's punches are hit and miss. No way of knowing how that's going to go."

"You say 'hi' to me every Friday morning… the first Friday, I, um, was having a bad day and called you a princess." Mike looked down, "really sorry about that. I apologized but, I still felt like crap after I said it. I still do now and that was more than ten days ago. I still keep thinking you'll remember it."

"You break your pencil tip breaks twice in Earth lab, and I give you one of mine. I haven't tried to change that yet. Maybe I'll give that a shot tomorrow."

"I said you had pretty eyes, and you didn't slap me or tell me off… I don't say it every day, but I think I'm going to now." El smiled at him her eyes sparkling.

"...and wow," Mike looked into her eyes again, never getting tired of it, "you really, really do. I can't believe I'm holding your hand." She squeezed his hand again.

"The worst part of this is that I'll get to remember this perfect day, tomorrow... and forever, but you won't." He looked down. "I can't tell you how much that is going to suck tomorrow morning."

El made up her mind. "I may not remember this… _or_ get to do it again tomorrow, but you can remember this forever also," she leaned forward and kissed him softly.

El watched a tear roll down Mike's cheek. "Thanks, El… you're my first kiss." A matching tear rolled down the other cheek, "… I… I really wish you'd remember this tomorrow. I will remember this day as long as I live." El pulled him into hug.

El whispered into his ear, "If it's meant to be Mike, I'll remember."

"So, two more things that happen every day," Mike said once he'd composed himself.

"Troy spazzes out and hammers his face on an open locker. It looks like he breaks his nose. And loses at least one tooth, but sometimes it's more"

"That won't happen today, Mike."

"Sure it will El," Mike was nodding his head, "although what's weird is that it doesn't seem to happen quite the same way each time. I haven't figured that part out yet."

"Oh, and my yesterday day you said something about your word of the day being telekinetic. I know what that means, I wasn't sure you did. We were talking about me being psychic… I'm not. It's only the repeating Friday thing."

El disentangled her hand from his, and took off her pink wristband. She laid it down on a railroad tie. She tilted her head forward, the wristband floated up in front of Mike's face, his beautiful eyes wide in amazement.

She plucked it out of the air and put it back on her wrist covering the tattoo and said, "I am telekinetic. Troy gets to keep his teeth today." Her face was dark.

Mike held up the sleeve of his jacket, so that El could wipe the trickle of the blood that oozed out of her nose.

"I think you've done that for me every single day. I had no idea."

"You let me use your sleeve everyday?" El asked.

"No, I hand you a handkerchief I have in my locker. You don't give it back, but it's there every single day." Mike smiled. "I eat the same two Eggos every day too. Unless something changes I'm never going to run out."

"What time is it?" El looked a little panicked.

"You're dad will be late today, we have plenty of time if we head back now." They started walking. Their hands found each other, their fingers entwined.

They got back to the bike rack at the school about the same time as they would have the previous Fridays.

"I think Max likes Lucas, I have to remember to tell her or you to come to our table at lunch, tomorrow. My tomorrow that is."

"You're Friday's must be getting busy with that list you have going." El smiled at him.

"I only need to remember Holly… and to tell you how pretty you are as many times as I can during the day." El blushed.

"No girl will ever complain if you say that to her... not the way you say it Mike…" El looked down.

It was 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view.

"I won't remember your secret tomorrow, but you'll remember mine… and this..." She leaned forward and kissed Mike again. El looked incredibly sad to Mike. "I really want to remember that."

"I'll remember it for both of us El… and I promise I won't tell anyone about your ability."

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Are you going to be kissing my daughter everyday now?"

"If she let's me, Sir."

Hopper growled, "I know I'm wasting my breath telling you not to get used to it."

Hopper looked at his daughter, then at Mike again. Was that almost a smile? He rolled up the window, and sped off.


	7. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 12

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday. Mike just came to the realization that he was probably never going to have a weekend. It didn't mean he couldn't take the day off like he did yesterday with El. But he also wanted to talk Dustin and Lucas. They would be harder to convince skipping the entire school day.

"Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

"And miss reliving Friday over and over again? That's just crazy Nance."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

Mike quickly ran to Holly's room and adjusted her dolls, and the shelf.

"Crisis averted." He said.

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes," his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Mike drummed his fingers impatiently on the counter waiting for the Eggos to pop out of the toaster.

Took a look back at the kitchen table. Friday's paper. Check. Oblivious Ted. Check.

He snarfed the Eggos down, and ran to the basement to brush his teeth. Mike was going to try something a little different today.

He was out of the house soon enough that Lucas hadn't even left his own house yet.

He felt a little sorry that Dustin and Lucas might have to deal with Troy, but there was a good possibility that they would be only be insulted and not punched. Still not cool, but at least they wouldn't be punched.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes Mike was careful to make sure he didn't slip while running to school.

Dustin was not waiting at the bike rack this time. It was a little too early. Mike headed for the front doors of the school.

Mike went to his locker. El was already at hers. She must really get here early, Mike thought.

El had on her blue wristband. "Hi" She said surprised to see him this early.

"First day I've talked to you, so this will be new for you."

Mike put his hands on her shoulders. She looked at him, wonder in her eyes. "Mike?"

"Eleven, you have the prettiest eyes… I want you to remember this for the whole day." He leaned in and half expected her to pull her head back to avoid him. She didn't, instead she raised her face up to meet his. He kissed her tenderly, for just a little longer than he had originally intended.

"Mike." She said breathlessly. "Wow. I don't know what I did to deserve that, but if you need to kiss me like that again anytime… just say the word, doesn't even need to be… my name."

"Are you having an ok day today? I need to drop a lot of zingers on you in short amount of time."

"Today was only going to be ok, but you made it a _lot_ better." She gave him a devastating smile. "A _lot_ … you have something to tell me… go ahead Mike."

"Ok," Mike started to tick off points with his fingers. "I know about your name, I know about," his voice dropped, "... your ability. I have been repeating this day for, um, twelve days now."

"Repeating…" she said, "so that's how you know. You didn't tell anybody?"

"No, El. You don't remember but I promised I wouldn't. I don't break my promises."

"Thanks, Mike… we… kissed before?"

"Yeah, sorry, my yesterday. You kissed me…" Mike swallowed hard. "You wanted to give me something to remember yesterday by."

"Are… we… together?" El asked, her eyes wide.

"No," Mike looked down. "We aren't… together. It's ...um… complicated."

"Let's uncomplicate it Mike. You can kiss me anytime you want. You just did. I was ok with it." El smiled at him. "If you only have this one day with me… let's make this... _our_ day. If anybody asks me, I will say you are my boyfriend. Is that uncomplicated enough? Anybody will think that anyway if they see us kiss."

"It's hard for me to do El. I'm only brave today because I've had a few days with this. And now my heart is pounding out of my chest as it is."

"I'm happy that I have that effect on you Mike."

"You've had that effect on me all year El. Um, your dad may not be happy about our sudden relationship. On my yesterday you had a bad day, you could have easily slapped me if I had kissed you then. And told your dad. I would have been dead meat."

"I would never hurt you, Mike… and my dad already knows about you. We don't have any secrets. He would never hurt you either"

Mike looked at her, "he knows?"

"He knows about you, not about your… Fridays. You can tell him that yourself."

"That's going to be hard to do. There aren't enough hours in the day."

"We'll figure something out. Until then call me Eleven, and kiss me every morning. I'll know we are… we have something special"

"We do, El. and if anybody asks, I'll say your my girlfriend. They won't believe me but I'll say it anyway. You don't hear the talk, but rumour has it, that El Hopper's boyfriend gets horribly killed when Chief Hopper find out."

El laughed. "Ok that's why no guy ever looks at me. They're all scared to death… except you Mike. Why won't they believe you? And why haven't you asked me out? Regular friends don't really kiss."

Mike was quiet.

"What's wrong Mike?" El touched his arm.

"I'll ask you out on Saturday, El. Not before then. I… can't. I have to go through all this again tomorrow."

El put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. "You call me Eleven, and you kiss me… every morning."

"Ok, El."

"I mean it, Mike. I will know that _you_ know. We'll figure it out from there. Everything will work out."

"Promise?"

"I promise, Mike."

Math class was the usual routine, Max came up to him, and said "El said we should go to the nerd table today at lunch, is that true?"

"So I can introduce you to Lucas"

"Ok, nerd table it is."

Mr. Clarke's lab was special. Mike had prepared and given El a box of pencils when her tip broke the second time.

"Ok, I've done this before. " El smiled him "You know girlfriends, even one day girlfriends expect jewelry for the first gift."

"I'll fix it tomorrow, uh, _my_ tomorrow " Mike said. Mike thought his heart would burst he was so happy. Nobody was looking, well, Mr. Clarke was but he was just smiling at the two of them. Mike leaned over and kissed El. Neither of them blushed, the day was too short for that.

When Dustin and Lucas, got to the Party table, El was sitting close to Mike, Max across from Mike.

"This is new," Dustin maneuvered himself so that Lucas had to sit beside Max.

"Max, I want you to meet by best friend and fellow nerd, Lucas Sinclair, Lucas, this is Max Mayfield. You two have crushes on each other, life is short, talk amongst yourselves. You guys will thank me later."

El laughed, both Max and Lucas looked like they wanted to crawl into a pit and not come out for the rest of the day.

"What about your other best friend and fellow nerd?" Dustin said.

"Yeah, Dustin Henderson, meet Lucas's future girlfriend, Max Mayfield."

"Well, fellow nerds… and nerdettes" Dustin looked like he was lost in thought, " _these_ , are state of the art." he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

Mike put his hand to his forehead like like he was about to predict something, he said in the most supernatural voice he could make, "... the first number is unclear but I see a 47…"

He waited for Dustin to roll the 11. He heard El whisper, "thank you, Mike"

Dusting rolled the 47.

"I see a 56."

Dustin rolled the 56. Max and Lucas looked at him. Their earlier embarrassment gone.

"And a 65."

Dustin rolled the number.

"Do nerds do magic tricks too?" Max said.

"Can a Jedi even do that?" Dustin was wondering.

Mike knew this was the first proof El had seen that he was actually telling the truth. Mike said to Max, "yeah we've been planning that for days."

Both Dustin and Lucas looked confused but didn't say anything.

At their lockers El said, "you saw that yesterday right?"

"No, El, yesterday, _my_ yesterday, you and I went for a walk along the railroad tracks.

"We missed school?"

"You made up for it today, nothing new happened… ok, for you it did." Mike lowered his voice. "I really want to kiss you right now but I see Troy making his way here. Go easy on him ok?

"Did he punch you today?" She asked. Her face darkened.

"No, I was here too early."

"Ok, I'll go easy on him then." Only Troy's nose was broken this time.

"Thanks El."

El just looked at him. "You just asked your telekinetic girlfriend to go easy on the bully who punches you almost every day. Where have you been all my life Mike Wheeler."

"I've been waiting for the prettiest girl…" Mike stopped. Pressed his lips together, trying to contain himself.

"What is it Mike?"

"I have to do all this again tomorrow. Today was more perfect than yesterday was. If that's even possible."

"Eleven, and kiss, Mike. That's all you need. Let's go wait outside.

When they were out at the bike rack, Mike said, "I don't know what I did to have this happen to me."

"Me or Friday?" El asked smiling.

"Both, if I wasn't reliving Friday, I would never have talked to you, never have held your hand, uh, that was what happened on my yesterday. And I would never have kissed you."

El was lost in thought. "I can't imagine what that's like Mike. If I could use my ability to help you, I would. Even if everyone saw, I would do it."

"Don't be tempted El, it's too dangerous for anybody to know what you can do."

"My dad's been saying the same thing."

"He's right, El. Be careful where you use them. Troy's not worth it."

"If I see a bruise on my boyfriends face again, Troy will start losing teeth." El's tone left no room for doubt.

It was 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view.

El leaned in and kissed Mike. She held onto him so he couldn't back away and try to avoid her dad seeing them.

"You'll see me tomorrow. Eleven and kiss. Promise me Mike."

"I promise. El."

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Are you going to be kissing my daughter everyday now?"

"If I can possibly get away with it, Sir."

Hopper growed, "I know I'm wasting my breath telling you not to get used to it."

Hopper looked at his daughter, then at Mike again. He rolled his eyes. Then he rolled up the window, and sped off.


	8. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 13

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday. Oh, and his 13th day. Mike wasn't really a superstitious person, but there was that nagging doubt in the back of his mind.

Mike looked up at the universe, "You're already screwing me over with this, and you want to add the 13th day too?" He shook his head.

"Are you not getting enough sleep, Mike, and now you're talking to yourself? Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

"An alarm wouldn't help, besides, I have you waking me up every morning. It's perfect." Mike got up and kissed his sister on the cheek.

"Thanks Nance."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. She was never going to understand her nerdy kid brother.

Mike quickly ran to Holly's room and adjusted her dolls, and the shelf. He kissed the top of Holly's head. That got him a big smile.

"Crisis averted." He said smiling back at her.

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes. " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

He took a look back at the kitchen table. Friday's paper. Check. Oblivious Ted. Check.

He ate the Eggos in record time, and ran to the basement to brush his teeth. He wanted to he wanted to keep the promise he'd made to El and get and early start today.

He was out of the house soon enough that Lucas hadn't even left his own house yet.

He felt a little sorry that Dustin and Lucas might have to deal with Troy, but there was a good possibility that they would be only be insulted and not punched. Still not cool, but at least they wouldn't be punched.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes Mike was careful to make sure he didn't slip while running to school.

Dustin was not waiting at the bike rack this time. It was a little too early. Mike headed for the front doors of the school.

Mike went to his locker. El was already at hers. She must really get here early, Mike thought again.

El still had on her blue wristband. "Hi" She said surprised to see him this early.

"First day I've talked to you, so this will be a bit of a surprise."

Mike put his hands on her shoulders. She looked at him, with those big round eyes. "Mike?"

Mike was a little unsteady on his feet, he said, "You made me promise to do this… Eleven." He leaned in and kissed her. Again he waited for the possibility of her being offended and pulling away, but instead, she leaned into his kiss.

"Mike." She breathed. "We have something to talk about, don't we? Are we… together?"

"Only for the day, El, I keep repeating my Friday, _this_ Friday. I know about... " Mike tapped her nose."

El adjusted her wristband, "Do you know about this?"

"Yeah."

"I've been sharing the best days of my life with you. That's only been my last two days. Both Fridays, both today…. I've… never asked you out"

"Why not? You just kissed me… I really made you promise… _yesterday_?"

Mike nodded again and said, " _My_ yesterday. Even if I asked you El, and even if you said 'yes'-"

"Yes" she said smiling.

Mike's eyes went wide, "Oh! Um, ok... Uh, even so, it's only for my day today. And I have to do this every morning."

"Then ask me every morning Mike. I will say yes _every_ morning.. I will _always_ say yes. I promise." El could see Mike's eyes brimming with tears.

"What is it, Mike?"

"You're so easy to talk to El. I've been scared to death and way too shy to talk to you before… but you make this… whole thing easier. This is only day 13 for me… I don't know how long I have to do this."

"If it's easier to get through this with me Mike, then we get through it together. On one of your… yesterdays, I trusted you with my name… and my ability. So you can trust me, I'll do everything I can to help. "

"Thanks, El. Forgot to tell you one other important thing."

"What is it Mike?"

"You're really pretty." El blushed.

"I can't believe you're my girlfriend. This Friday thing might not be so bad after all. I think of all the time people waste over stupid stuff, if they knew they had to fit into one day, we'd all be better off."

Mike held her hand on the way to home room. "Make sure you bring Max to our table for lunch."

XXXXX

Max came up to him after math class, "seriously Wheeler, you want me to sit at the nerd table."

"That will be the easiest way to talk to Lucas. You can tell him you really like him by shouting across the lunchroom, but sitting beside him will be much better."

Max looked away, "thanks, Mike."

XXXXX

Mr. Clarke's lab was going to special for Mike. He had prepared and given El a box of pencils when her tip broke the second time.

"Ok, I've done this before. " El smiled him "You know girlfriends, even one day girlfriends expect jewelry for the first gift."

Mike laughed. "You said that yesterday too. I um, had no time to go shopping, it being Friday both yesterday and today, so…" Mike handed her a piece of folder paper.

El read: I.O.U. One Promise Ring.

She held the slip of paper to her heart closed her eyes and breathed "Mike… "

"I told you my yesterday, I would fix the gift thing." He leaned over and kissed her. He didn't really care who was watching.

XXXXX

When Dustin and Lucas, got to the Party table, El was sitting close to Mike, Max across from Mike.

"This is new," Dustin maneuvered himself so that Lucas had to sit beside Max.

"Max, I want you to meet by best friend and fellow nerd, Lucas Sinclair, Lucas, this is Max Mayfield. You two have crushes on each other, this day is really short, you should go find a private spot and at least kiss a few times. You will thank me later."

Max and Lucas wouldn't look at each other. They weren't used to this Mike, or to the current situation he'd put them in.

Dustin laughed, El smiled at Mike and nodded.

"Well, fellow nerds… and nerdettes," Dustin looked like he was lost in thought, " _these_ , are state of the art." he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

Dusting started his rolls. Mike ignored the 11, but quicky called out, "47, 56, and 65."

"Practising for Vegas, Wheeler." Max smirked.

And the smirk disappeared when she saw, 47, 56, 65.

"Ok, no way, Dustin could have faked that." Lucas said. "What's going on Mike?"

"I'm repeating this Friday. This is day 13 for me."

Dustin said. "That's hard to believe Mike. We know you wouldn't lie, but…"

"Is a plate dropping hard to believe?"

"What?" Both Dustin and Lucas said, a split second before the plate splintered on the lunchroom floor and laughter erupted.

"I'm convinced, Wheeler." Max said. "Must be a pain in the ass to go through this everyday."

"Not everyday is the same. I've managed to change a few things, but some things stay the same. I don't try and convince you guys every day. Two days ago, well two days ago for me, El and I just went out and walked down the tracks."

"That's been the best thing, it forced me to talk to El." Mike looked at El, she nodded in agreement.

"Breaking the ice every morning with someone who's never given you the time of day. That's got to be tough Mike," Lucas said.

"I kiss El every morning. Turns out she's ok with it." El was nodding.

"I would give him more than the time of day if he had asked." El said.

Max held up her hands, "don't wanna know El."

El turned a deep shade of red, "I meant kissing, Max." Mike clued in and turned red also.

"Well shit, Mike, " Dustin said, "welcome to Friday."

XXXXX

The end of the school day finally came around, and Mike went to his locker. El was already there. He saw her changing her wrist band back to pink.

"How was your day, Mike?"

"Best day of my life… thanks to you. I can't believe how nice you are…. and how pretty your eyes are- _you_ are. I was lucky to have this day with you. I wasted the whole year not even trying to talk to you or get to know you."

"You need to make up for lost time," El leaned in and kissed him.

"That's hard to do when we have school everyday. That's _every_ day. Remember I don't get weekends now."

"Every five days, we should skip school… the tracks?… we can't really go out in public, people know we should be at school." El said.

"We should… I need alone time with you." Mike said, he looked around, "this doesn't really count. I don't really need Troy to… wait, where is he today?"

"He had an accident earlier today, called me a name, he lost some teeth. It was very sad." El didn't look sad though, she was giving Mike a mischievous smile.

"Remind me not to make you mad, El."

"You could never make me mad, I l- like you too much." El looked down.

They went outside to wait. They stood in comfortable silence till 3:45, when Hoppers truck pulled into view, El put her hand on the back of Mike's head and pulled him into a soft kiss.

"Thank you, Mike. Thank you for just being _you_." El's incredible eyes bored into his own.

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Are you going to be kissing my daughter everyday now?"

"She kissed _me_ , Sir. But don't worry, I was ok with it."

Hopper looked at his daughter, then at Mike again. He rolled his eyes. Then he rolled up the window, and sped off.


	9. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 29

Days 14 to 28 went as about as smoothly as Mike could have hoped for. He was able to catch Holly before she tried for her doll on the shelf. He could not stop Lucas from from adjusting his backpack strap. Some days he got punched by Troy, other days Troy looked flabbergasted and left with a parting insult. The days he punched Mike, he lost more teeth than the other days. Mike was totally ok with that.

Everyday that he went to the school he invited Max to what she called the "nerd table" and tried to embarrass her and Lucas by saying they should just kiss on the spot and get it over with.

He didn't do the _predicting_ thing as El called it. Not everyday. Some days he just wasn't in the mood for all the questions.

Everyday he called El, Eleven, said she was pretty, kissed her, and he asked her out.

She said _yes_ every single day. Some days El could see he was completely overwhelmed with his predicament and pulled him into a hug. Other days Mike could see it was El who needed the hug and needed to talk to him. They headed for the tracks on those days and got to know each other. For El it was learning about Mike just for the day. Mike was getting to know El they way he always wanted to know about a girl. By talking to her. Laughing with her.

One day while they were taking a school break walking down the tracks, Mike knew he was in serious jeopardy. He thought he might be falling in love with her. He could _never_ tell her. For El she'd only talked to him that one day, sure they had kissed and shared secrets, but that was easily explained by the crushes they had for each other. For Mike though, he had learned something new about her everyday for a month. It was no longer a crush.

On day 28, Lucas invited him and Dustin for a gaming sleepover. Mike didn't really have a campaign planned, so they would play a pre-published module and Mike would mix it up a bit so they could replay it if necessary at a later date.

He thought a sleepover would be interesting. How would Nancy wake him up? She couldn't if he was over at Lucas's house. He wasn't worried about Nancy, what bugged him the most was knowing that Holly would be crying if he didn't get to her room on time. There was no way he could wake up in Lucas's basement, and run to his house to get to her room in time.

So Mike was reluctant to sleep over, but he thought that _maybe_ this would break the repeating Friday cycle. He was almost sure of it the more he thought about it.

Mike was wrong.

XXXXX

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike.

"Ugh," was all Mike could say. He didn't have the energy to throw off the covers. He felt sick. It almost felt like he was coming down with a nasty cold.

"Are you ok, Mike? You don't look very good."

"I'll be worse after I come home from school." His voice was weak and scratchy.

"You can't go to school like that Mike," Nancy told him.

"Last time I told Mom I was sick, she made me go to school anyway… Nancy can you go check on Holly, she's reaching for her favourite doll again."

Nancy came back a minute later, "Crisis averted. I'll talk to mom. You shouldn't be going to school today."

"Thanks Nance, I owe you."

As bad as Mike felt he was unable to fall back to sleep. He eventually made his way to the basement. He wanted to sit on the sofa and read comics all day and nap when he could. He managed to get into the sleeping while on the sofa and got comfortable enough, but didn't feel like reading. He just sat staring at the table they Party used for gaming.

Near the end of the school day, as his parents were about to leave for the weekend, the doorbell rang, Mike was half in a daze, when he heard his mother say, "Michael your lab partner is here with your homework. We're leaving now."

El?

He heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. When he saw her, his heart did a triple backflip.

"Eleven," Mike managed to croak out, "you have prettiest eyes I've seen in a billion years."

She rushed over to his side and put the school books on the floor. "Mike? You don't look very good..." Her eyes went really wide, "I mean you look really sick. I know you need to talk to me."

Mike explained in a weak voice everything he'd gone through. Everything they'd talked about. He told her how each day seemed even more special than the previous day. He said that even if he had to keep repeating Friday forever, knowing he could talk, _really_ talk to her made it tolerable, well more than tolerable but he felt like he was starting to erode. Breaking down slowly until he was afraid there would be nothing left.

"You are the only thing I look forward to each day. That first day we spent on the tracks was one of the best days, no school, I got to talk to you all day. I got to know you. I got to… kiss you. I _never_ thought I'd get to kiss you."

El looked at him smiling. "You are telling me that I get to kiss you for the first time everyday." She sighed.

"Yeah, but won't remember the next day. That hurts." Mike looked down,

"I'm sorry, Mike, I'll try to remember. " A tear rolled down El's cheek.

"It's ok, El, this isn't on you. It's not your fault. I don't know how to fix it. I just need to see you and talk to you everyday."

Mike waited a few seconds then changed the subject.

"So I tried a sleepover at Lucas's last night. My 28th Friday. I figured the universe would have to transport me back to my bed while sleeping, and then reset Friday."

"...and that's what it did." El finished for him, wiping her tears away.

"I think that's why I feel so sick. I broke the rules or something. That's not the worst thing."

"Oh?" El said waiting for more bad news.

"I promised I'd kiss you every day and ask you out. But I don't think we should take a chance of you getting any germs from me. Just in case it really _is_ a cold."

"I think Max would say _screw that_ '." El said turning slightly red, she came over, kissed him and gave him a hug… " she whispered into his ear "And _yes_ ' for the other Mike. Everyday it's a _yes_."

"Thanks, El. Didn't your dad pick you up at 3:45 today?"

"I told him I had our lab homework and to drop me off here, he knew where you lived, he _is_ the Chief of Police after all… he said we had a few hours to work on it."

"That's the last thing I feel like doing." Mike said.

"Me either," El looked at him.

"A few weeks ago of Fridays, I told you I needed some alone time with you. This is what I had in mind, but without feeling like crap." Mike coughed, even this little bit of talking was making him hoarse.

"No talking, Mike," She said, sitting herself close to him, "just snuggling. You'll feel better… ok I will, but maybe you will too." She laid her head on his shoulder.

Mike awoke when he smelled the chicken soup. He immediately heard his stomach rumble with hunger. "How long have I been asleep? Sorry El, I really wanted to talk to you for as long as we could."

"About an hour. I managed to forage in the kitchen, and make you some soup. It's ok Mike you needed the sleep and you were… comfortable with me." El said her eyes smiling at him.

"Thanks, you are going to make someone a great wife one day." Mike said, both of them turned crimson and looked down. Nothing needed to be said, they both understood.

El spoonfed him for the first few minutes until Mike felt embarrassed and took the bowl and spoon from her.

"This may be the best chicken soup I've ever had. Couldn't be because you made it."

El blushed.

"I can't cook that well, I only had my dad to learn from. Will you be able to keep it down?"

"Yeah, I wasn't that kind of sick, just really dragged out, like Troy had punched every inch of my body. It aches just to move. I can't even take a really deep breath. So when I look at really pretty eyes, you know, like yours, and when you kiss me, and it kinda takes my breath away… it hurts a little." Mike smiled at El.

"I'm going to get closer, I have to hurt you again now," El giggled and leaned over to give him a soft kiss, she lingered and sighed against his mouth, "...Mike." She laid her head back down on his shoulder.

"El?"

"Mike?"

"What am I going to do? What if I never get past Friday? It's already been weeks, I'm afraid it's going to be months… or years."

El had started to cry, "I'm sorry Mike, I can't help you. All I can do is be here for you on all your Friday's."

"You've been here for me for almost my whole month of Friday's. I couldn't have done it without you. I really couldn't. As far as you know I'm a total stranger, I've never talked to you before. In one day you've told me a secret that was important to you, you've kissed me, you said yes to being my girlfriend, you've listened to what could easily be a kid with serious mental or emotional challenges. I mean, if I had told any of this to my Mom or my sister, I'd be having psychiatric sessions right now."

"But you accepted what I said without question, I mean I know you had questions, but you went with it. I told you on a previous Friday. I can't believe how nice you are to me. I _still_ feel like crap about how badly I treated you that morning. I don't even know how to make that up to you."

El was still crying but reached her arms up to hug him tightly. "It's ok Mike. I'm Eleven. And I'm your girlfriend. I'm here for you this day and everyday."

"El…" Mike's voice hitched. He lost his resolve and started sobbing uncontrollably on her shoulder. El rocked him back and forth until he'd cried himself to sleep.


	10. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 352

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday. Mike was numb.

"Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

"It would keep waking me up me up to Friday."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

They heard a loud thump from Holly's room and then Holly starting to wail. Nancy left quickly to see what happened. Shit he'd forgotten about Holly. Mike had the feeling today was going to be pretty bad.

Mike trudged downstairs to the kitchen. Holly had stopped crying by the time Mike sat down. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes. " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Mike didn't feel like eating. He didn't feel hungry. He didn't feel anything.

Ted was reading the morning paper, oblivious to his family.

Mike had really wanted scrambled eggs like he usually got on Friday mornings. During his entire year of Fridays he'd never made them for himself after Nancy had shown him. A few times El said she knew how to cook them from her dad, and she offered to make them for him on Saturday morning. When she'd seen his strangely sad looks, she tried to make light and tell him her cooking wasn't _that_ bad.

Nancy came downstairs with Holly, looked at Mike and said, "She pulled down her doll shelf and they were all over the place. Crisis averted."

Mike ate his Eggos. He didn't use syrup, he preferred it on scrambled eggs.

Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He liked to use the basement bathroom for that. The upstairs bathroom was always busy in the mornings. Mike was sure he spent most of his time in the basement. He practically lived in it. He found he had to open a tube of toothpaste from a new box.

Lucas was coming up the driveway when Mike stepped out outside. "Hey Mike," Lucas said. He was adjusting a strap on a new backpack he'd gotten for Christmas. It came loose in his hands.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores?"

"I can probably fix it. Just the stitching gave way. It didn't snap like I thought."

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike could see that El Hopper was farther behind them.

He he didn't really feel like talking, but he knew he needed to talk to her. She would listen to how bad he felt. He didn't want to make her feel sad but she would get that from the sound of his voice or from the way he spoke. He wouldn't be able to help that today.

"What would Friday be without a fresh bruise?" Dustin said, trying to be funny, but it was delivered with a big sigh.

The three of them waited for Troy.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

"Go fuck yourself sideways Troy. James can help."

"What did you say frogface,"

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I was referring to the horse you rode in on."

Troy looked back like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Then he punched Mike a good one in the jaw and ran off with James.

"Damn," Dustin said, "that was ballsy and stupid at the same time."

As they walked towards the front doors of the school, Lucas tripped on an untied shoelaces, he fell face first into the grass, inches from there the sidewalk pavement started.

"Sorry, Lucas. I should have warned you. Not myself today."

"It's ok man, back talking to Troy like that we knew something was up. Wanna talk about it?"

"I'm repeating my Fridays, and I'm in love with El Hopper. Max likes you Lucas, I can prove it during lunch."

"You can prove you like El Hopper? We know that."

"Not _like_ Lucas. Love. And no I can't prove that, I can only show her I do, but I can prove I'm repeating Friday's. Dustin your new dice are translucent red."

Dustin looked at Lucas, "I have questions Mike. Lots of questions"

"It will have to wait Dustin."

Mike was at his locker when El came up to hers. She always wore a wristband her left wrist. It was a pink one today. But he saw that she had quickly changed it to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi." There was an infinite sadness in them. It broke Mike's heart to see her eyes that way.

"Eleven?"

El's eye got wide, and she was looking a little paranoid. Mike was finding it hard to talk. He was just numb.

"Yes, MIke?"

"I'm repeating this Friday. Over and over again, and there's this," Mike leaned in and kissed her.

"Will you-"

"Yes. Mike. Everyday it's a yes." Her mouth curled up a little in a smile.

"Let's get out of here."

The both put their books back in their lockers. They're hands found each other, and they left for the train tracks.

XXXXX

"This is the first day I've talked to you Mike, but I get the feeling you are being a lot quieter than usual." El sounded a little unsure of herself. "How many days has it been?"

"352"

"Have they all been bad like today?"

"No, first month was a little frustrating, but once I'd gotten into a routine about what to say to everyone… and what I needed to say to you." Mike looked down.

"El, you are the most incredible girl I know. You're nice, you're smart, you're prettier than a guy like me deserves."

El smiled at him, "you deserve me Mike."

Mike laughed out loud, "that's exactly why you are incredible, you can make me feel better with four words. And you've been my girlfriend, for almost a year. All I had to do was ask. All I have to do is ask and you say _yes_ , you don't even think about it. Today I hadn't even managed to get it all out and you said yes, like you knew we should be together."

"We _should_ be together, Mike."

"For you I wish it could be more than one day." Mike sighed.

"I felt like nothing, this morning. It's been that way for the last few weeks. I talk to you and it's like bam, I'm better again, I can make it through the day. I think about you all the time El."

Mike could see El's pretty eyes watering up, "don't cry El, I didn't want to make you feel bad. I realize now, I can do it. You are there for me every day. I can do this. When you told me to call you Eleven… I think that was in my first week. It gave me what I needed to reach you. And when I did, we could talk to each other about anything."

El smiled at him, "I trusted you with my… secret."

"Not only that El. We get to kiss. You have soft lips. I could kiss you all day."

El turned to him and kissed him, "you have soft lips too Mike, and gorgeous eyes. Am I the first girl to tell you that?"

Mike nodded. "You will be my first and last girlfriend El. I promise."

El hugged him tightly squeezing her eyes together. "I'm here for you Mike."

They spent the day walking down the train tracks to the junkyard. When their hands got too cold, Mike used his one of his mitts and pulled it over both their entwined hands. El just looked at him in wonder at the simple solution to holding Mike's hands and keeping them both warm.

"Mike?"

"What if you tried to stay with me all night?"

Mike turned a deep crimson.

El followed suit, "no Mike, not like _that_ I mean what if we're just together, maybe even awake? What do you think would happen?"

"I tried staying over at Lucas's for a gaming sleepover once, you know who he is?"

"Yes, my best friend Max has a crush on him." El smiled.

"I woke up the next day in my own bed, back in my house. I was sick. Not throwing up sick, but like I'd been punched a lot by Troy."

Mike could see El's face darken, "and thanks by the way, everyday he's had his nose broken and lost some teeth. I had no idea you were doing that. You were protecting me even though you didn't even know me." He leaned in to kiss her again.

"You came over with lab homework, made me chicken soup. You didn't even know me, but you knew something was up when I called you Eleven." Mike looked into her eyes. He was drawn together for another kiss.

"I could get used to this kissing." El said.

"I haven't. I've been kissing you almost every day for a year. I'm not even close to getting used to it." El gave Mike a smile that squeezed his heart.

"We should head back, you're dad will be late tonight, won't get there till 3:45."

XXXXX

Mike and El spent a lot longer kissing each other at the bike rack. Mike didn't care who saw, and that included Chief Jim Hopper

At 3:45 his truck sped into view.

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Are you really going to be kissing my daughter everyday now?"

"Yes. Everyday."

Hopper looked at his daughter, then at Mike again. He rolled his eyes. Then he rolled up the window, and drove away slowly. He could see El looking at him through the back window, with her palm pressed against the window.


	11. Friday, Feb 1st - Day 353

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Friday. Eleven and kiss. That's what she said.

"Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

Mike ran past Nancy, quickly to Holly's room. Crisis averted.

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was unpredictable.

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes. " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Eggos in the toaster, the long wait for them to pop.

He took a look back at the kitchen table. Friday's paper. Check. Oblivious Ted. Check.

It was probably dangerous for a human to eat Eggos as quickly as Mike did. Nobody was watching so no warnings.

He brushed his teeth in the basement in record time also. Probably not long enough to do any good.

He was out of the house soon enough that Lucas hadn't even left his house yet.

He felt a little sorry again that Dustin and Lucas might have to deal with Troy, but there was a good possibility that they would only be insulted and not punched. Still not cool, but at least they wouldn't be punched. Maybe that treat was for Mike Wheeler's face only.

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes Mike was careful to make sure he didn't slip while running to school.

Of course Dustin was not waiting at the bike rack this time. Mike was sure he was even earlier than yesterday. Mike headed for the front doors of the school.

Mike went to his locker. El wasn't there. Ok something was different, but nothing to worry about. Except he did start to worry. El hadn't shown up at all. He waited until he had to go to home room.

Mike was really worried now. The bottom dropped out of his stomach when he heard the first announcement over the school PA system.

"Would Michael Wheeler come the Principal's office please."

The whole class went "ooh." How did The Nerd King get into trouble?

Mike looked at the teacher who nodded that he was excused.

When Mike saw who was waiting from him in the Principal's office, his heart stopped. Not in a good way.

Chief Jim Hopper was waiting for him leaning up against a door jamb.

"Let's go Wheeler."

"Did I do anything wrong, Sir? Mike swallowed hard.

"Let's _go_ , Wheeler."

Once they were outside, Hopper said, "I know you're a nerd, Wheeler, but I'm not even going to try and explain it to you. You probably wouldn't believe me anyway. El can do that better than I can, I know you'll believe her."

"Uh, Sir, I've never talked to your daughter before. I know who she is, but we've never even said 'hi' to each other." Mike had to be careful here. He already knew about El's ability. Maybe she'd done something really bad with it?

"El and I don't have any secrets. Used to, didn't work out. So we talk… a lot . And _she_ talks about you all the time."

Mike didn't know what to say. He had to be really really careful about what he said. He didn't know what was going on.

"So when she tells me she needs you, when she can barely talk or stand because she's crying so hard that she needs you. I pull you out of school so she can talk you. Simple as that."

"But…" Mike was screaming inside. What was going on with El?

"I get it Wheeler, you say don't know her. But you know _something_."

Mike sighed. He _did_ know something, but El didn't, not until he was able to run through it with her all over again He'd just have to wait until they got there. Mike didn't even now where _there_ was. Nobody at school dared ask where El Hopper lived. Way too dangerous a question.

The truck stopped in the middle of nowhere. Uh, this was weird. "We're going for a walk Wheeler."

Walk where? They were nowhere, the last five minutes of driving hadn't even been on dirt road much less a paved one.

They started hiking through the woods. Mike didn't really keep track of how long it was, but it wasn't a five minute walk through the snow.

Finally Mike saw a cabin up ahead. "Hold it Wheeler," Hopper pointed down to the ground and did an exaggerated step over something invisible.

When Mike looked closer, he could see there was a wire going between two trees. A tripwire? What the hell was going on with El?

Hopper walked up to the cabin and knocked a specific pattern, Mike was sure it was Morse code, but he hadn't been paying close enough attention to make out the letters.

He heard several locks unlatch at once, the door flew open and El appeared in the doorway and then launched herself at Mike, flung her arms around him.

"Mike." She started crying harder than Mike thought it was possible for anybody to do.

To keep Mike from being bowled over, he had to do some footwork and spin a little. He was facing Hopper now. Managed to relay a shrug with his eyes to Hopper.

"Let's get inside,"

El would not let go of Mike, she clung to his arm, her hands bunching up his jacket so she could hold on tighter.

They went inside out of the cold.

Once inside, El hugged Mike fiercely. She could not stop crying.

Mike was confused, El didn't know him, he hadn't told her anything yet, hadn't used her full name. Could she have remembered his yesterday? Mike's heart lifted thinking that could be a possibility.

El said something Mike wasn't expecting to hear. Not in a million years.

"I've been lying to you." She said, tears started to trickle out of her eyes again, but she continued.

"Not really lying, but not telling you the truth."

He wanted to tell her it was ok, that she had done nothing wrong, "Eleven-"

She put a finger on his lips to quiet him.

"I've been reliving this Friday for 353 days. And…," more tears cascaded down her cheeks. "I think... because of my ability... I caused you to do relive today over and over again because I love you so much... I'm sorry Mike. I'm so sorry."

She broke down crying. She was inconsolable for a long long time. Mike hugged her tightly never letting her go.

When El was quiet for a few minutes, Mike said, "353 days, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper said from behind them. "She's had to tell me the same story every morning for 353 days, Wheeler. And I had to make her promise me to keep this from you. I knew it was breaking her heart…" Hopper looked down and cleared his throat, "because it was breaking mine... I'll let you two talk." He left quickly to go for a walk in the woods.

El couldn't look at him. "Are you mad at me Mike?"

"No El, I could never be mad at you. I love you too much for that. I'm just so relieved. The girl I love knows who I am…I-" Mike burst into tears. It was El's turn to hug him like she would never let him go.

They went to the sofa, they sat close together facing each other. El held Mike's hands to her heart.

"I don't know where to start," Mike sniffed.

"You don't have to Mike. I remember every day. Like it was yesterday," She laughed, "Ok, I didn't mean it that way."

Mike smiled. He looked down, "I'm so sorry I called you princess that day. I almost feel like I was getting punished for it."

"Mike. You have apologized for it. A little over two hundred times. I lost track." She smiled at him. "And I knew every one of them was sincere Mike. You almost made me cry every single time."

"El… You have no idea how much I love you."

Tears started rolling down El's cheeks again, "Mike. You're whole existence has been caught up in my love for you."

Mike leaned in to kiss her softly.

"It always felt special to call you Eleven. I knew it would let me really _talk_ to you. I knew something nobody else did. That's probably the best thing you ever did for me."

"It felt special to me too Mike. I think _swooning_ is the word. Dad made me look it up when I couldn't stop talking about you." El looked into his eyes.

"You can still call me Eleven, Mike."

"Eleven?"

"Yes, Mike?"

"In any of those 353 days, did you ever have a good cry?

El burst out laughing, "Only every day Mike. That's over now. Tears of joy from this point on for me."

"Me too."

They lay together on the couch in each others arms. "Mike, are you up for sleeping with me tonight?"

Mike turned crimson, and when El saw what he might be thinking she did too.

"Ok let me use a better choice of words, I should have said are you up for an experiment. We'll stay together on the sofa tonight."

"I'm not sure you're dad is going to go for that."

"He already told me we could try it."

"Why not. Worst thing that can happen, is that your dad doesn't have to drive me home, I'll be off school sick, and you can visit and make me chicken soup."

El smiled him. "The _best_ thing that will happen. No matter how it turns out. I'll still love you and we'll still be together.

It was a long time later when Hopper had returned with pizza.

He looked at the the two of them from under his dark brow. "Are we good?"

"We are great dad," El jumped up and ran over to hug his middle. He kissed the top of her head, closing his eyes.

"Wheeler?"

"You have the most beautiful, kindest, smartest daughter in Hawkins. Don't let anybody ever tell you your not doing right by her... Sir."

Hopper cleared his throat. "Jeezuz Wheeler, I'm already letting you stay the night to try your little experiment. No need to butter me up."

"I'm just telling you the truth, Sir." Hopper looked at him for a few seconds nodded.

Hopper retired early, and left his daughter and her boyfriend cuddle up on the sofa.

Mike and El tried to stay awake, but was resting her head on his shoulder, arms around his waist. Her eyes fluttered closed and within minutes he could feel the soft rhythm of her breathing. The sound lulled him to sleep.

Mike knew he would never get tired of falling asleep with El's head resting on him.


	12. Epilogue

Chief Jim Hopper got up early to head into the station. On his way out he looked over at the sofa.

His daughter had her face nuzzled up to the Wheeler boy's neck, her arms around his waist. He had both of his arms wrapped around her. They were holding on to each other so tightly they couldn't have possibly slept very well in that position. It didn't look like they were ever going to let go of each other.

He he pulled out his police notebook, thumbed his pen and wrote a quick message, tore off the page and placed it where they couldn't miss it sitting on the coffee table.

XXXXX

Mike could feel El beginning to stir. Her eyes looked up at him, and her mouth formed a beautiful smile.

"You have pretty eyes, Eleven. I love you."

El buried her face in his chest and started to cry. They still hadn't let go of each other.

Eventually they propped themselves upright, just staring into each other's eyes. Mike leaned over. They kissed for a long time. "I love you Mike."

"I can't believe you are really here." Mike said his voice a little unsteady. He looked around.

"Or that _I'm_ really here, I guess." His eyes fell on the coffee table and he saw the note.

He picked it up and showed it to El, tears in his eyes. She read it and nodded, and started crying softly. Mike hugged her, his face buried in her shoulder. "I am never going to let you go Eleven. Never."

The note only had one word on it.

_Saturday_.

XXXXX

Hopper dropped the both of them off at school on Monday morning. Hand in hand they went to their lockers.

Mike got is combination wrong, "Shit, you'd think after a year of meeting you at our lockers I could do this blindfolded."

"I got mine wrong too. Could they have changed them over the weekend Mike?"

"I could see maybe just mine or just yours, but both? That doesn't make any sense."

"Why are you trying to break into my locker, Wheeler?" Max said coming up behind them, she was holding hands with Lucas. Dustin walked beside Lucas.

Mike looked down at their hands and smiled at Lucas. "About time," he said to him.

El looked at Max, "My locker is right beside Mike's"

"And it still is, it's around the corner."

"I don't understand, it's Monday February 4th right?" Mike said.

"Actually," Lucas said, "It's Monday February 3rd."

"That can't be right, Mike said looking at El, who had a worried look in her eyes. "Groundhog day was Saturday this year, so yesterday was the 3rd, and today is the 4th."

Max smirked, "Maybe you two should breathe more when you kiss, because I don't think either of you are getting enough oxygen today."

Dustin, said, "technically Mike is correct if we were still in 1985," Dustin turned to Mike, but in _this_ year, which is 1986, Groundhog day was a Sunday."

Mike looked at El, "we caught up, El. Everything is back to normal."

Dustin, Max and Lucas started to feel a little uncomfortable as El fervently smothered Mike's face in kisses, laughing and crying at the same time.

Dustin looked at Lucas and Max. "You'd think they'd never seen each other in a year."

"Do we have a story to tell you." Mike said.

XXXXX

The next Monday, Dustin, Lucas and Max, came up behind Mike kissing El, at the bike stands.

"Are we going to be subjected to this every morning." Dustin rolled his eyes at them.

"Yes." Mike and El said at the exact same time.

Max said, "so are you guys going to the Groundhog day thing the school is doing, or going to sneak off and neck."

"If only," Mike said, "Groundhog day was last Sunday Max. Remember we've already talked about this?"

Max looked at Lucas and Dustin, "uh, guys, what's going with you two, you guys have had problems keeping track of time for the last year."

"Mike, it's Monday, February 2nd, 1987."


End file.
